Matsu Gets the Knot
by MatsuHerO
Summary: Matsu faces off with the True Knot.


Ness woke up to the sound of an explosion outside, and something about it felt familiar, almost as if someone was about to start pounding on the door to get him to investigate something which would lead to an amazing adventure fraught with humor and danger. It instilled a warm nostalgia in him, and he decided to get ahead of things this time. He dressed and grabbed his bat and yoyo, which would help him take care of whatever threats his psychic powers couldn't.  
He left a note by the phone letting his mother and sister know where he had gone and set out, wondering what amazing sights he'd witness this time. Oddly, he could see that whatever had caused the explosion had landed in the exact same place the meteor had all those months ago. While this seemed weird he would go with it, as he'd seen some weird things over his journeys.  
When Ness reached the mountain's summit, he saw the smoking crater but there was no sign of any meteor.  
He reached the rim of the crater and saw a figure standing in its smokey recesses. They looked up at him with one glowing eye and held out a hand. Ness readied his bat but he was able to intuit that this figure meant him no harm.  
The figure cried out, "Ness! I need your help!"  
Ness instantly knew who this was: Matsu Her-O, interdimensional ronin! Or something like that. He replied, "Okay!"

Ness was the last member Matsu needed for his next mission: he was going after the True Knot, a group of vampiric creatures though none of the team knew if his intent was to recruit or destroy them and his choice of team didn't help illuminate that. From his ship, he brought Ethan Crane and Pokemaster Terrapin and he had picked up Trevor Belmont on the way.  
All four were hiding behind some bushes as Ness stood out in the open.  
"So you drag me out to the middle of fucking nowhere to sit in some bushes with two kids and a goddamned vampire," said Trevor Belmont, taking a flask out of his pocket and downing some.  
"Simon was too busy," said Matsu. "Believe me, you weren't my first choice. Or my second choice. You barely beat out Christopher."  
"Whatever," said Trevor.  
Terrapin looked out towards Ness. "Why did you get that kid, anyway? What's the deal here?"  
"The creatures we're looking for are attracted to beings with psychic energy," explained Matsu.  
"So you're using the child as bait," said Ethan. "Delightful! Didn't know you had it in you."  
Trevor took another drink. "Why is the vampire here?"  
"Maybe if they see a vampire's with us, they'll be more willing to talk," said Matsu.  
"What am I supposed to do," asked Terrapin.  
"You really should have planned this better, you bastard," said Trevor.  
"Terrapin, you're here to catch one, because they're monsters and that's what you do," explained Matsu.  
"You know that's not how that works," said Terrapin, with a sigh. "Can we get back to using a kid as bait, actually? I feel like that's a step too far, like how you recruited that one serial killer, and that other serial killer, too. Also that third serial killer? Oh my god."  
"Two of them are nice now," said Matsu. "And Jason just needs some time."  
"He keeps stalking that one girl in the purple cloak," argued Terrapin. "Look, I'm just saying using this Ness kid as bait is kind of messed up."  
"What I do with my son is my business," said Matsu.  
Terrapin and Ethan, in unison, said, "What?"  
"Shh, someone's coming," said Trevor.

Rose the Hat sat in the back of her camper, preparing herself while Crow Daddy drove. He had picked up a massive source of steam earlier that night and while everyone agreed it was a trap, they also knew this was too good an opportunity to pass up. There was so little steam left in the world and something like this would keep them fed for years, maybe centuries. Rose felt gidder than she had since she was just a wee Irish lass.  
They pulled into the campground and could see the source of the steam, a young round-headed boy with beady black eyes. Rose felt this was odd, but steam sometimes did odd things to a person. She'd been alive for centuries and had seen quite a lot, after all.  
"I'm going to go talk to him," she said. "We'll see if he belongs with us or in us."  
She disembarked and walked towards the boy, who turned to face her. He was disconcerting, but she could feel the steam inside of him and could barely keep herself from salivating. "Hello, little boy! You seem to be lost. Perhaps I could help."  
He nodded and said, "Okay!"  
She crouched down in front of him. "Now then, we're some very special people and I can feel you're a special young boy, too."  
"Okay!"  
Rose stared at him, discombobulated by his lack of speech skills. "All right. Come with me, then."  
"I think we have a better offer," said a voice from the darkness. A tall thin red-headed man stepped out of the shadows wearing a red suit with a gray top hat. She could see his pupil-less yellow eyes searching her over. "Your group can join ours. See, I'm a vampire, too! Supposedly, that's a selling point for this offer."  
Rose smirked. "Oh my. Your group?"  
The most striking man she had ever seen stepped into the light as well, but there was something odd about him. She could feel the steam in others, but he seemed to be completely devoid of it. Everyone had some steam, so his lack of it struck her as extremely unnerving. She didn't trust this man and wanted nothing to do with his group. She used her shine to contact the others, who had been lying in wait in a similarly theatrical manner.  
Rose readied herself for battle as the others stepped into the light.  
On the other side, Trevor joined Matsu and Ethan on the front lines. Ethan had taken out some dice and was rolling them while cursing under his breath.  
The big-headed boy let loose a bolt of lighting that turned into a pillar of fire as he shouted "PK FIRE!"  
The battle had begun.

In the woods, one of the members of the True Knot, a man known as Johnny the Gun, tried to escape. Something felt off about all of this and he didn't want to die tonight, that wasn't why he had joined the True Knot. They had found him after the War Between the States working as a trick shooter in a traveling cowboy show. He had joined the Confederate Army at the tender age of twelve, lying about his age so he could fight for his beliefs. During the conflict, he discovered that bullets would miss him and that all his shots hit their mark.  
This translated well to his trick shooter career, but one night after the show, Rose the Hat had come to him and convinced him to join the True Knot. It wasn't a hard decision, as she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen and she offered something he didn't know he had been seeking: immortality, or at least something like it. All they had to do was occasionally kill someone and take in their steam. It was a simple trade-off, but he had no intention of staying back there with those men who would undoubtedly see that immortality put to the test.  
He stumbled into a small clearing and stopped to take stock of his surroundings. As he did this, something hit him in the shoulder. He looked down and saw a purple and white ball with an M printed on it. He knelt down to pick it up and a voice said, "I knew it wouldn't work."  
Johnny the Gun looked up and saw a young man in a cap and vest with a bandolier of balls similar to the first slung across his chest. He looked and felt harmless.  
"You're not a Pokemon. I can only catch Pokemon, but Matsu doesn't seem to realize that," said Pokemaster Terrapin. "I don't know, maybe he just thinks my abilities will evolve or something. I don't think that's how it works. Man, I don't want to fight you."  
Johnny saw his chance. "Then just let me go, kid. No one else needs to know."  
To his horror, Terrapin shook his head. "I said I didn't want to, not that I wasn't going to. You see, my team and I have fought a lot of things in my time. Criminal organizations, terrorist groups, even demigods. Some of those people were bad people, but you and your group? You've probably killed hundreds of children over the years, maybe even thousands, and I can't just let you go. The only problem is what to do with you. Tell me, how many people have you killed?"  
Johnny thought about this and realized with a start that he didn't know. Before he joined the Knot, he had killed a lot of people and afterwards he just started losing track and what did he have to show for it? A long life as a nomad, and he could remember so little. That didn't matter to him, not really. He had lived this long, and would continue living, no matter what this young idiot had to say. He growled, "About to be one more."  
The kid laughed. The kid actually laughed. "Okay, now I know what to do. Go, Shedinja!"  
Terrapin threw one of his balls and something that looked like a cicada shell emerged from it. It flew over to Johnny and he grabbed it out of the air.  
He scoffed, "What's this supposed to do to me?"  
"Just don't look in the back," said Terrapin.  
Johnny felt he was being goaded into it, but the whole situation had just messed with his head. He wasn't thinking straight and turned the Shedinja around and felt something pulling at him, pulling at something inside of him. The Pokemaster had taken out a device and raised it up and pressed a button. A tinny voice said, "A discarded bug shell that came to life. Peering into the crack on its back is said to steal one's spirit."  
Johnny realized what was happening and was momentarily gratified that he still had a spirit to steal, and it was the last thing he ever felt.

"You daft fuckers," shouted Trevor, whipping a member of the True Knot as they tried to run away. Ness was tossing members left and right, using his other PK powers to deal with them as he did. Ethan was even helping, delighted that these creatures that seemed so much like vampires had just as much blood as a human being. Matsu was using less than his full power, less than even a fraction of his powers but doing as much damage as the other three combined. At this point, most of the True Knot were dead or running away but none of them were getting that far especially once Terrapin came in on a Torterra to keep them from getting too far.  
Rose the Hat stood in the middle of all of it, too shocked to move. She couldn't figure out how things had gone so wrong and she once again put her powers towards Matsu and realized why she couldn't feel his steam: it was everywhere, flowing from him in a way she had never seen before in all her years.  
Before she knew it, the rest of the True Knot was gone and the members of Matsu's group surrounded her. Trevor and Ethan were barely able to resist tearing her apart, while Ness and Terrapin stood by.  
Terrapin whispered, "Whoa."  
Despite everything, Rose smiled. It seemed she had an admirer. For now, she focused on Matsu Her-O. He stepped forward with his hand outstretched. In a normal man, that would mean a handshake, but she had seen that same hand blast several of her family from existence. She had to be careful.  
"Rose the Hat," he repeated. "Once again, will you join us? Your powers would help us defeat the Neo Crystal Empress and free my beloved Sarah from her icy grip!"  
"Also protect the Fictosphere. We all protect the Fictosphere," said Terrapin, his eyes still on Rose. They hadn't left her since he walked over and she felt he brought it up to impress her. He failed, but she appreciated the attempt.  
"I'm not one for heroics, but I can see with you I'd eat well and live long," said Rose. She took Matsu's hand and shaking it gently. "All right, I'll join your little crusade especially since I'm not one for lonely roads." She looked at Terrapin and smiled her best smile. "I appreciate having a little company."  
She could feel him shiver and had to stifle a laugh.  
"Great! We just need to drop Trevor off and then the rest of us will head back to the Armageddon Zebra," said Matsu.  
Terrapin seemed to shake off some of Rose's effects on him. "We're taking Ness?"  
"Yes. He is my son, after all," insisted Matsu.  
"That still doesn't make sense," said Ethan. "At all."  
Matsu seemingly didn't hear this as the the team teleported away with their newest member.


End file.
